Hamilton zoning board still undecided on solar project

HAMILTON — There’s still no light at the end of the tunnel for a massive commercial solar project planned for Crosswicks-Hamilton Square Road.

Another zoning board meeting on the plan Tuesday was concluded with no decision, and weary board members carried the hearing to a future date.

The next meeting will mark the sixth time the board has convened for the BKB Properties application that proposes installing a 10-megawatt, 64,000-panel solar site in Hamilton’s rural southeast section. The project would occupy 60 acres, or slightly more than 54 football fields.

More than 20 hours of testimony have marked the contentious hearings, and zoning board members seemed frustrated Tuesday night at the way the hearings were dragging on.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” zoning board attorney Michael Balint said at 9:30 p.m., when attorney Michele Donato told him a witness of hers would take another hour-and-a-half.

Donato represents Save Hamilton Open Space, a local environmental group opposing the solar construction on grounds it would destroy valuable farmland and erode the rural character of the Rural Resource Conservation district the BKB property falls in.

Donato has launched a spirited, sometimes exhausting, case against the BKB application, cross-examining the applicant’s witnesses at length and providing witnesses of her own on everything from stormwater management to soil structure.

BKB properties, led by developers Barry Black Sr. and son Barry Black Jr., have categorized the project as a winsome ratable for Hamilton that will cultivate clean energy and keep the property free of houses that could burden the school district and township infrastructure.

A small group of residents stuck around for the public comment section last night. Some appealed to the board to protect one of the few remaining stretches of farmland in Hamilton, while another resident argued the jobs provided by the construction project were much-needed.

Local Sierra Club representative Laura Lynch reminded the board to be patient.
“I’m worried you’re more concerned with finishing than hearing the facts,” she told the board. “These things take a long time and there’s a reason they take a long time. Let everyone make their voices heard so we don’t wind up in court later.”

Balint said the board had been more than patient, adding some meetings are “like being more at a filibuster than a hearing.”